491 research outputs found
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Three-dimensional magnetic fields: from coils to reconnection
This thesis is a work divided into two parts on aspects of three-dimensional (3D) magnetic fields: (I) magnetic reconnection treated from a strictly 3D viewpoint and (II) the design of coils for producing the 3D magnetic fields of optimized stellarators.
In astrophysical settings, magnetic fields are generically 3D. 3D divergence-free fields have rich topological structures such as magnetic nulls and chaotic field line structures. Standard reconnection literature identifies magnetic nulls as locations of magnetic reconnection, and that intense currents will build up around them. This idea is explored with a key realization that by placing a vanishingly small sphere around the null, boundary conditions on field lines passing through the sphere may be sorted out. The main result here is (1) the dismissal of the notion that nulls are crucial places for magnetic reconnection and current accumulation, instead identifying separatrices of topological type on the boundaries of null-passing field lines to be crucial. Standard reconnection literature dismisses chaotic flows yet 3D fields generically have chaotic flows. An inherent property of chaotic flows is exponentiation. The main result here is (2) the identification of exponentiation as a natural mechanism for magnetic reconnection and that the associated current builds up linearly in time in contradiction to standard results requiring the formation of high-density current sheets.
The magnetic fields of optimized stellarators are intricate, producing complex 3D magnetic surfaces. These fields are conventionally generated by non-planar electromagnetic coils, though these coils are costly to manufacture, slow device assembly, and hinder stellarator maintenance. Part II of this thesis explores methods of stellarator coil simplification that do not involve modular coils. All of this work uses current potentials, which are stream functions of the current sheets that produce magnetic surfaces. We begin with a result found using analytic methods on current potentials that (1) there may be an inherent limitation in the ability of modular coils to produce fields at a distance. This result is not surprising, though further analysis is necessary to work out some complexities of the result.
Next, (2) a novel method to produce localized patches of current potential, representative of patches of current sheets, is developed and used to identify crucial locations of current placement for shaping magnetic surfaces. Most notably, these current sheet patches are able to produce much of the surface shaping while occupying a small fraction of the winding surface, resulting in good open-access stellarator coil configurations. Continuing the trend away from modular coils, (3) helical coils are optimized to support stellarator magnetic fields.
This work agrees with related work on the optimization of helical coils, finding them unsuitable to the precise production of equilibria generated by modular coils. To improve this result, we use coil sets of mixed-type: helical coils with windowpane coils or permanent magnets, to mitigate field error left behind by the helical coils. Finally, (4) the development of a generalized method to cut modular, helical, and windowpane coils out of current potentials and to identify the associated coil currents is developed and used in coil optimization
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FRET-based dynamic structural biology: Challenges, perspectives and an appeal for open-science practices
Single-molecule FRET (smFRET) has become a mainstream technique for studying biomolecular structural dynamics. The rapid and wide adoption of smFRET experiments by an ever-increasing number of groups has generated significant progress in sample preparation, measurement procedures, data analysis, algorithms and documentation. Several labs that employ smFRET approaches have joined forces to inform the smFRET community about streamlining how to perform experiments and analyze results for obtaining quantitative information on biomolecular structure and dynamics. The recent efforts include blind tests to assess the accuracy and the precision of smFRET experiments among different labs using various procedures. These multi-lab studies have led to the development of smFRET procedures and documentation, which are important when submitting entries into the archiving system for integrative structure models, PDB-Dev. This position paper describes the current âstate of the artâ from different perspectives, points to unresolved methodological issues for quantitative structural studies, provides a set of âsoft recommendationsâ about which an emerging consensus exists, and lists openly available resources for newcomers and seasoned practitioners. To make further progress, we strongly encourage âopen scienceâ practices
Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure
A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium
The OpenMolcas Web: A Community-Driven Approach to Advancing Computational Chemistry
The developments of the open-source OpenMolcas chemistry software environment since spring 2020 are described, with a focus on novel functionalities accessible in the stable branch of the package or via interfaces with other packages. These developments span a wide range of topics in computational chemistry and are presented in thematic sections: electronic structure theory, electronic spectroscopy simulations, analytic gradients and molecular structure optimizations, ab initio molecular dynamics, and other new features. This report offers an overview of the chemical phenomena and processes OpenMolcas can address, while showing that OpenMolcas is an attractive platform for state-of-the-art atomistic computer simulations
Electron Thermal Runaway in Atmospheric Electrified Gases: a microscopic approach
Thesis elaborated from 2018 to 2023 at the Instituto de AstrofĂsica de AndalucĂa under the supervision of Alejandro Luque (Granada, Spain) and Nikolai Lehtinen (Bergen, Norway). This thesis presents a new database of atmospheric electron-molecule collision cross sections which was published separately under the DOI :
With this new database and a new super-electron management algorithm which significantly enhances high-energy electron statistics at previously unresolved ratios, the thesis explores general facets of the electron thermal runaway process relevant to atmospheric discharges under various conditions of the temperature and gas composition as can be encountered in the wake and formation of discharge channels
Thermo-Electro-Optical Properties of Disordered Nanowire Networks
Metallic nanowire networks are promising candidates for next-generation transparent conductors, owing to their exceptional electrical and thermal conductivity, high optical transparency, and mechanical flexibility. A nanowire network is a disordered arrangement of nanowires that exhibits no discernible long-range order or periodicity. Previous studies have placed significant emphasis on the individual analysis of electrical resistance, optical transmission, and thermal conduction in diverse network materials. Nonetheless, insufficient focus has been devoted to comprehending the relationship between the multiple extrinsic and intrinsic variables that characterize a disordered nanowire network (or an ensemble of them) and the trade-offs that arise when investigating the system response trio of namely electrical/ optical/thermal natures. This thesis presents a comprehensive computational study that exclusively employs theoretical and numerical models to examine the thermoelectric and optical characteristics of two types of disordered metallic nanowire networks: (i) junction-based random nanowire networks and (ii) seamless random nanowire networks. The raw materials that compose their nanowires are metals namely, silver, gold, copper, and aluminium and we used a variety of computational tools to obtain prominent physical quantities that infer the networkâs performance such as sheet (electrical) resistance, optical transmission, and temperature variation. A range of adjustable parameters, including those pertaining to geometrical structure in device design, have been systematically tuned in order to conduct a figure of merit analysis with respect to thermal and electrical conduction, and optical transmission of the network materials. Moreover, we obtained local current and temperature mappings that detail the conduction mechanisms used by the networks to propagate signals through their disordered skeleton. We verified that, under certain conditions, junction-based and seamless nanowire networks fall into the same temperature distribution mechanisms that can be generally described with Weibull probability density functions. This study offers valuable insights into the electrical/optical/thermal performance of disordered nanowire networks prone to transparent conductor applications
AI for time-resolved imaging: from fluorescence lifetime to single-pixel time of flight
Time-resolved imaging is a field of optics which measures the arrival time of light on the camera. This thesis looks at two time-resolved imaging modalities: fluorescence lifetime imaging and time-of-flight measurement for depth imaging and ranging. Both of these applications require temporal accuracy on the order of pico- or nanosecond (10â12 â 10â9s) scales.
This demands special camera technology and optics that can sample light-intensity extremely quickly, much faster than an ordinary video camera. However, such detectors can be very expensive compared to regular cameras while offering lower image quality. Further, information of interest is often hidden (encoded) in the raw temporal data. Therefore, computational imaging algorithms are used to enhance, analyse and extract information from time-resolved images.
"A picture is worth a thousand words". This describes a fundamental blessing and curse of image analysis: images contain extreme amounts of data. Consequently, it is very difficult to design algorithms that encompass all the possible pixel permutations and combinations that can encode this information. Fortunately, the rise of AI and machine learning (ML) allow us to instead create algorithms in a data-driven way. This thesis demonstrates the application of ML to time-resolved imaging tasks, ranging from parameter estimation in noisy data and decoding of overlapping information, through super-resolution, to inferring 3D information from 1D (temporal) data
Roadmap on Label-Free Super-resolution Imaging
Label-free super-resolution (LFSR) imaging relies on light-scattering processes in nanoscale objects without a need for fluorescent (FL) staining required in super-resolved FL microscopy. The objectives of this Roadmap are to present a comprehensive vision of the developments, the state-of-the-art in this field, and to discuss the resolution boundaries and hurdles that need to be overcome to break the classical diffraction limit of the label-free imaging. The scope of this Roadmap spans from the advanced interference detection techniques, where the diffraction-limited lateral resolution is combined with unsurpassed axial and temporal resolution, to techniques with true lateral super-resolution capability that are based on understanding resolution as an information science problem, on using novel structured illumination, near-field scanning, and nonlinear optics approaches, and on designing superlenses based on nanoplasmonics, metamaterials, transformation optics, and microsphere-assisted approaches. To this end, this Roadmap brings under the same umbrella researchers from the physics and biomedical optics communities in which such studies have often been developing separately. The ultimate intent of this paper is to create a vision for the current and future developments of LFSR imaging based on its physical mechanisms and to create a great opening for the series of articles in this field.Peer reviewe
Applications of Molecular Dynamics simulations for biomolecular systems and improvements to density-based clustering in the analysis
Molecular Dynamics simulations provide a powerful tool to study biomolecular systems with atomistic detail. The key to better understand the function and behaviour of these molecules can often be found in their structural variability. Simulations can help to expose this information that is otherwise experimentally hard or impossible to attain. This work covers two application examples for which a sampling and a characterisation of the conformational ensemble could reveal the structural basis to answer a topical research question. For the fungal toxin phalloidinâa small bicyclic peptideâobserved product ratios in different cyclisation reactions could be rationalised by assessing the conformational pre-organisation of precursor fragments. For the C-type lectin receptor langerin, conformational changes induced by different side-chain protonations could deliver an explanation
of the pH-dependency in the proteinâs calcium-binding. The investigations were accompanied by the continued development of a density-based clustering protocol into a respective software package, which is generally well applicable for the use case of extracting conformational states from Molecular Dynamics data
On the Road to 6G: Visions, Requirements, Key Technologies and Testbeds
Fifth generation (5G) mobile communication systems have entered the stage of commercial development, providing users with new services and improved user experiences as well as offering a host of novel opportunities to various industries. However, 5G still faces many challenges. To address these challenges, international industrial, academic, and standards organizations have commenced research on sixth generation (6G) wireless communication systems. A series of white papers and survey papers have been published, which aim to define 6G in terms of requirements, application scenarios, key technologies, etc. Although ITU-R has been working on the 6G vision and it is expected to reach a consensus on what 6G will be by mid-2023, the related global discussions are still wide open and the existing literature has identified numerous open issues. This paper first provides a comprehensive portrayal of the 6G vision, technical requirements, and application scenarios, covering the current common understanding of 6G. Then, a critical appraisal of the 6G network architecture and key technologies is presented. Furthermore, existing testbeds and advanced 6G verification platforms are detailed for the first time. In addition, future research directions and open challenges are identified for stimulating the on-going global debate. Finally, lessons learned to date concerning 6G networks are discussed
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